- The India International Exchange is located in a 16-floor building in a new finance zone, the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City or GIFT city, near capital Gandhinagar. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Bombay Stock Exchange or BSE.
- GIFT City is PM Modi's dream project, envisaged when he was chief minister of Gujarat. The Prime Minister said today that it has a location advantage positioned in "an excellent time zone between the East and the West" and that he expects it to create many job opportunities.
- The exchange has been created to spearhead India's push to attract more foreign investment and will trade a range of financial instruments, including equities, commodities and currency in the first phase starting January 16.
- Gift City targets $48 billion in banking activities that Indian entities do in offshore centres like Singapore, Dubai and Hong Kong, estimated to go up to $120 billion by 2025.
- Gift City is the country's first International Financial Services Centre or IIFSC.
- "GIFT city could be more like what Hong Kong is for China," Mr Chauhan said at the inauguration of the exchange by PM Modi on the sidelines of the Vibrant Gujarat investor summit, also a pet project of the Prime Minister from the time he was the state's chief minister.
- Mr Chauhan said he expects the exchange to become profitable in two to three years. The long trading hours will help attract high-frequency traders, said the BSE executive, who says trading could even stretch to 23 hours.
- The BSE's main rival, the National Stock Exchange, is also expected to set up a bourse in Gujarat.
- Analysts have warned of challenges, citing a lack of tax incentives and the rupee being only partially convertible.
- China is reportedly establishing a similar zone in Shenzhen.
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